By Nuel Suji – President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of a former Bring Back Our Girls Campaigner (BBOG), Hadiza Bala Usman as the new Managing Director of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA).
Until her appointment, Ms. Bala Usman was the Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai.
A statement by the Director of Press, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Yetunde Sonaike, Tuesday in Abuja, said Ms Bala Usman replaces Habib Abdullahi as NPA MD.
Mr. Abdullahi who was sacked from the position by the Jonathan administration last year April was reappointed by the Buhari administration in August months later.
The statement said also named Mohammed Bello-Koko as Executive Director, Finance; Prof. Idris Abubakar, Executive Director Engineering; Dr Sekonte Davies as Executive Director, Marine Operations, in the NPA’s new appointment.
Ms Bala Usman was born on Jan. 2, 1976 in Zaria, Kaduna State and has a B.Sc. Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria and a Post Graduate in Development Studies from She grew up close to the ABU campus where her father worked and obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 2000 from the same university and her Master’s degree from the University of Leeds in 2009.
She worked for a non-governmental organisation, the Centre for Democratic Development and Research Training (CEDDERT) in Zaria, as a research assistant for a year starting in 1999.
She also worked for the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) when el-Rufai was the director-general of the privatisation agency and moved with him to work as his Special Assistant on Project Implementation.
In 2011, she worked as Director of Strategy for the Good Governance Group (3G). In 2015, she was appointed Chief of Staff to the Kaduna State governor. University of Leeds, UK in 2009.
She was, in 2015, appointed Chief of Staff to Governor El-Rufa’i, a position she held until her present appointment.
Ms. Bala-Usman is also member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Anti-Corruption.
